What We Were
by rain17
Summary: When Elizabeth dies she leaves behind a daughter, much to his own surprise enlists Jason to care for her. But nothing is really as it seems at all. (Main Charactes: Jason/ Elizabeth/ Courtney/ Luke some Lucky, Carly and Ric
1. Prologue

WHAT WE WERE  
  
As he drove down the road a thousand thoughts cluttered his mind. He tried as best he could to make them fade away, he didn't want to think about anything right now. So he rode faster, the wind hit his face in a harsh manner, cold, but it made his thoughts disappear, going for a ride on his bike always seemed to clear his mind, but there was something about this ride he knew would be different.  
  
The faster he rode, the faster he got there, this was something he had failed to take into consideration.  
  
He regretted it now, now that he was there. St. Timothy's. The lot behind the church where he parked his motorcycle was more than half filled with cars. People heading into the building with somber looks on their face. Some tears, a lot of silence.  
  
He let out an audible sigh, and did his best at convincing himself that he should be there.  
  
"Jason." An apparently harsh voice came from behind him.  
  
"Lucky." He let out another sigh and spoke "Look, I…"  
  
"… Don't speak. You were her friend, kind of. I'm not going to make you leave, it wouldn't be right. Just know that I don't like it."  
  
"Fine." He agreed, and stood there a minute as Lucky walked away. He looked up at the church again. This time trying to convince himself to go inside, convince his feet to move.  
  
How had any of this happened? How had he reached where he was? So much had changed in so little time. Jason wasn't one for looking back, but ever since he'd heard the news, since he'd heard the words coming straight from Sonny's mouth 'Elizabeth Webber is dead.', he couldn't seem to help himself.  
  
Elizabeth was dead. 'Dead', The word rang in his ears. He had spent so much time and energy trying to keep her safe, telling her that his life was too dangerous for her, and she died anyway, she hadn't even been part of his life for a long time, and she was killed anyway.  
  
Married at 22. Mother at 23. Divorced and dead at 24. That's what her life had become, what he had let it become. 


	2. Deep Thoughts

"Jason? Is that you?" Courtney spoke and rushed down the stairs at the first sound of movement coming from the bottom floor.  
  
"Yeah, it's me." Jason assured her, coming in the door.  
  
"How was the service?" Courtney asked awkwardly.  
  
"Horrible."  
  
"Horrible?" She questioned  
  
"Yeah. I don't really want to talk about it."  
  
"Right." Courtney said in a lighter tone "No use to dwell."  
  
Jason stared at her for a moment. He didn't really know what to say anymore, he wanted to be alone, he needed to think.   
  
He didn't have to worry about what to say for long, a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.  
  
The door was opened to reveal a man in a business suit. He was a shorter man, stocky, with apparent signs of the beginning stages of balding.  
  
"I'm Timothy Woods." The man introduced himself. "I'm here to see Jason Morgan."  
  
He stayed on the other side of the door, in the hallway, waiting to be given permission for his entrance.  
  
"I'm Jason Morgan."   
  
"Mr. Morgan, I'm here to discuss the issue of Elizabeth Webber's will."  
  
"Elizabeth's will?" Courtney questioned.  
  
"Yes ma'am."   
  
"What did she leave something to Jason?" Courtney asked "Jason, do you think she left something to you?" She redirected her question.  
  
"I don't know." Jason spoke still staring at the man in the doorway.  
  
"May I come in, sir? I'll be better able to discuss this with you."  
  
"Come in." Jason directed.  
  
"You and Ms. Webber were close, I presume?" The man spoke entering the penthouse.  
  
"We were once, yes." Jason said.  
  
"Then you do know of her child?" Mr. Woods pressed on.  
  
"Yeah. She had a baby with Ric Lansing, a daughter."   
  
"That's correct, sir."  
  
"I don't get what any of this has to do with Jason." Courtney interrupted.  
  
"Well it was Ms. Webber's wish that Mr. Morgan gain custody of her daughter, in case of her death."  
  
"What?"   
  
"It's all right here, sir, seeing as though you were of no relation to Ms. Webber, or to her daughter, you would have to appeal to a judge to receive custody, but as long as no one opposes the case it should go pretty smoothly."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Why would she leave her daughter to you, Jason? You two have barely even spoken in the last year." Courtney ranted, she had been going on like this, asking the same question over and over, since Timothy Woods had left the penthouse.  
  
"I don't know, Courtney. None of this really makes sense."  
  
"Well, it's ridiculous. You can't raise her daughter."  
  
Jason was silent.  
  
"Jason? Hello?"   
  
"Sorry. I was just thinking."  
  
"You aren't seriously considering this, Jason? Come on you, can't be."  
  
"It's what she wanted, Courtney, and as ridiculous as it may seem, Elizabeth usually had a good reason for doing the thing she did. She wouldn't have left her daughter to me if that wasn't what she wanted, if it wasn't what she thought needed to happen."   
  
"Alright, Jason, let's say for one minute that I agreed with you, even if you wanted to raise her daughter, you heard Mr. Woods he said you'd have to appeal to a judge, and if, IF, no one opposes it there shouldn't be a problem, do you really think no one is going to oppose you raising Elizabeth's daughter? Her grandmother, Lucky, Nikolas, come on she has a lot of friends, none of which like you, not to mention Ric, this is his daughter we're talking about."  
  
"Ric is gone, Courtney. He's been gone. He didn't even come back for the funeral."  
  
"You're really serious about this, aren't you?"   
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"She obviously was not in her right mind when she put that in her will." Lucky fumed.  
  
"Not in her right mind?" Jason repeated "She died in a car accident, not from some mind altering disease."  
  
"You're going to fight me on this?" Jason asked in a tired tone.  
  
"Every step of the way." Lucky answered.   
  
"Mr. Morgan, the judge will see you now." The lady at the reception desk spoke, and led Jason into the adjacent office.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Lucky, maybe it's best if you just let this happen the way she wanted." Luke Spencer proposed, trying to calm his son down.  
  
"The way she wanted? Dad, I can't believe that she really wanted a criminal to raise her child."  
  
"It's all right here in black and white." Luke said, referring to the will. 


	3. Transformations

"I still can't believe your serious about doing this." Courtney commented.  
  
Jason looked up from the papers at his desk, "Courtney, I thought we'd been through this, you said that you were ok with all of this."  
  
"I said, if this is what you want Jason, I'm not going to stop you, of course not. I just still don't understand it, that's all."  
  
"What's to understand?" Jason questioned.  
  
"Ric."  
  
"What about him?"  
  
"Why hasn't anyone contacted him? This is his little girl they are just auctioning off…"  
  
"Hey!" Jason stopped her "This is Elizabeth's daughter. Elizabeth's. She left him, for good reason, the man's insane."  
  
"I'm not saying he's he a great guy Jason, but he loved Elizabeth, and I'm sure he'd want…"  
  
"They can't find him."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Ric." He clarified "The judge said they had made numerous efforts to contact him, he's no where to be found."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Why are you pushing this?" Luke inquired.  
  
"Because. Dad, this is Elizabeth we are taking about."  
  
"Oh, I'm well aware of that."   
  
"Why are you suddenly rooting for Jason anyway? You've never been the guys biggest fan."   
  
"No, and I don't ever intend to be. Like you said, this is Elizabeth we're talking about. You know Elizabeth, she always had her reasons, even if they didn't make sense to the rest of the world."   
  
"What makes you think your more apt to be a father than Jason Morgan, anyway?" Luke continued, crossing his arms.  
  
Lucky was silent.  
  
"Now, I don't want to hurt you, cowboy, but let's face the facts here, Elizabeth is gone. What is it that you are trying to do, are you trying to hold on to Elizabeth's little girl, or are you trying to hold on to Elizabeth?"  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"She's ready for you Mr. Morgan, you can go ahead and go in" The receptionist spoke from her desk.  
  
Jason got up from the cold uncomfortable chair he had been sitting in for nearly a half an hour. A half an hour of waiting, no, days of waiting, and now the time was finally here. The judge had made her decision.  
  
"Mr. Morgan, nice to see you again, please have a seat."   
  
"I'm not going to bore you with a lot of talk around this issue, I think you should know right away my decision. My decision, is for you to receive full guardianship of Ms. Webber's daughter, as of this moment on you are solely responsible for Alison Marie Webber."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Jason!" A familiar voice called out.  
  
"Elizabeth?" He asked stunned. "How can you be here, you, I thought you were…"  
  
"Shhh" She instructed "I'm not really here, you're dreaming."  
  
"I don't dream"  
  
"I guess you do now." She smiled. "I have something for you."   
  
"What?"  
  
"Peace of mind - I know you, I know you'll love my daughter like she's your own."  
  
"I will, Elizabeth, I prom--"  
  
"Shhh." She said again "I know."  
  
"How can you be gone, if this feels so real?"  
  
"Jason?"   
  
"Jason?"  
  
"I'm here." He spoke as the image of her began to fade away.  
  
"JASON!" With the call of his name one last time he was brought out of his dream and back into reality.  
  
"Jason, I must have called your name 10 times, must've been some dream you were having" Courtney said  
  
"I don't dream." Jason stated. 


	4. The beginning of the end

It had been one week since Jason had finally been able to take Alison home, Ali, as most had taken to calling her.   
  
He woke up to the sound of crying, it wasn't something he was used too, and it still surprised him to wake up to that sound. This was one time when his light sleeping came in handy.   
  
He made his way into the room he had set up for her, it wasn't much, but Carly had plans for it.  
  
"Something's wrong." Jason said turning to Courtney who was coming through the door.  
  
"Wrong?" Courtney questioned "Jason, babies cry, I'm sure she's fine"  
  
"No, feel her forehead, she's burning up, we need to get her to the hospital"  
  
~*~ General Hospital ~*~  
  
"Jason." Monica said, surprised to see her son, especially at such a late hour.  
  
"Monica"  
  
"Oh my, this must be Alison, Emily told me you got custody, Jason I think it's great"  
  
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it myself - but something's wrong, she has a fever."  
  
"Oh dear, let me see her" She requested, then turned her attention to Alison "Yes, come here sweetie, let's see what's wrong."  
  
~*~ Later ~*~  
  
"Hey" Courtney said coming down the hall "Carly said she's on her way, I told her she didn't have to come, but she insisted. How is she?"  
  
"They said it wasn't serious, they want to keep her overnight though." Jason replied.  
  
"But, tomorrow, what about…"  
  
"I know. This bad timing, but there's nothing I can do to change it."  
  
"Jason, it can still go as planned, I mean they said it wasn't serious."  
  
"Yeah, they also said they were keeping her over night - Courtney, I'm not going to just leave her now, and be gone for two weeks."  
  
"But it's not like you'd just be leaving her here at the hospital, Sonny and Carly they can handle it, they've been through this kind of thing before I'm sure."  
  
"That's not the point."   
  
"Jason, it's our wedding."  
  
"It's my daughter."  
  
Courtney shook her head, that was the first time she had heard Jason actually call Alison his daughter, she wasn't adjusting to this very well, it didn't sit well. Alison would always be Elizabeth's daughter, and she seemed to be having a difficult time getting around that.  
  
"Fine. Jason, fine, we'll postpone it… again." Courtney sighed.  
  
"Courtney - I'm doing this to hurt you."  
  
"I know, I just, I'm going to go home, I'm tired, I'll see you there later."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Jason, there you are" Carly said standing in front of the chair Jason had seated himself in.  
  
"Carly, you know you didn't have to come down here."  
  
"Of course I did." She replied, taking the seat next to him. "Courtney said that they were keeping Ali overnight, and if I know you, you're planning on staying, so I thought I'd stay with you, keep you company."  
  
"That's nice. But you don't have to stay."  
  
"The hell I don't. You're my best friend, unless of course you don't want my company"  
  
"Stay."   
  
"Good. Now that that's settled, where's Courtney?"  
  
Jason left out a heavy sigh before answering "She left."  
  
"What's going on, did you two have a fight or something? Do you want me to talk to her?" Carly started to butt in.  
  
"No, Carly I want you to stay out of it, and I mean that."  
  
"Well a lot is going on now, you know, not just for you, but for her too, you know I think it'd take a lot of getting used to if say Sonny was raising Brenda's baby or something, and now on top of that you have to postpone the wedding, which you already did once for the custody hearing…"  
  
"Brenda?" Jason questioned  
  
"Yeah. Elizabeth was your Brenda. You know, annoying past that just wont go away, always there, just lurking, waiting for a chance get in good again."  
  
"Carly?" Jason interrupted.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Stop talking." 


	5. True Colors

The next morning, Jason woke in the hospital alone. Sometime between 11pm and 2am he had convinced Carly to go home and get some real sleep.  
  
He went to the nurses station and Bobbie told him that Alison was ready to be taken home.   
  
When he walked into the penthouse he noticed Courtney asleep on the couch, he walked behind it and kissed Ali on the forehead before putting her down in the play pen that was located on the other side of the couch  
  
"Jason. You startled me" Courtney said awakening.  
  
"You slept on the couch?" He questioned  
  
"Yeah, I guess I thought that you might have come home last night, and I didn't want to miss you. Listen Jason, I'm sorry about last night, I realize probably over reacted."  
  
"You're not wrong to be upset, Courtney. But you need to realize that some things have changed."  
  
"I realize that."  
  
"Do you?" Jason asked skeptically.   
  
"Jason. I do, I just can't wait for things to go back to normal, that's all."  
  
"This is normal."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"This is my life now. Alison, and everything that goes along with having her."  
  
"What about me, do I even still fit in?"  
  
"That's up to you, Courtney. There's still a place for you, but whether or not you let yourself take it, adapt, fit in. It's all up to you."  
  
"So what? 'This is the way I am like it or leave it?'" She spoke in an increasingly angry tone "We're supposed to get married, Jason, we're supposed to get married and be happy and have kids - of our OWN. Not Elizabeth's mistake."  
  
Jason shook his head "I was wrong."   
  
"What? About what?"  
  
"There isn't a place for you. Get out."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
"What am I going to do. Hmm, do you know Ali? I'm sure your smarter than all of us."  
  
She reached up and touched his face.  
  
"Anyone who didn't fall in love with you at first site had to be crazy, right?"  
  
He left her in her play pen and went to the door.  
  
"Marco, I'm going to have some boxes for you to take over to the loft in a little while."  
  
While the door was still open, Carly made her way across the hall.  
  
"Jason? What's going on? I just got a call from Courtney, she said - " She stopped mid sentence when she peered into the penthouse and spotted the boxes sitting in front of Jason's couch "Oh, God it's true, Jason tell me what happened, I'm sure we can work this out, if you just -"  
  
"Carly, I don't have time for this. So either help me pack all this stuff, or go back across the hall." 


End file.
